Ex parte Seube

The petitioner was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine, with the alternative of imprisonment, upon a charge of carrying on the business of selling liquors without a license, contrary to the provisions of an ordinance of Colusa county. He claims that his imprisonment is unlawful because the ordinance is void, and he bases this contention upon the decision in the case of Merced County v. Helm, 102 Cal. 159 , in which it was held that an ordinance in some respects similar to the Colusa county ordinance was in excess of the powers of the board of supervisors, because it attempted to impose a license tax upon each single sale and not upon the business of selling. I have always considered that the rule of construction applied in that case went to the extreme verge of strictness, and the court has been disposed to limit rather than extend its application, as appears from the manner in which the case of Ex parte Mansfield was distinguished in 106 Cal. 400 . In this case the language of the ordinance differs from that of the ordinance construed in Merced County v. Helm, supra, and clearly supports a construction which brings it within the conceded power of the board of supervisors “to…